Organizational Capabilities for Government as a Platform: The Case of Engaging the Labour Market Ecosystem

Digital platforms are increasingly recognized as transformative tools for government service delivery. Yet, many platforms fail to achieve their intended impact and there is limited understanding of the organizational capabilities required to develop successful platforms. This study addresses this gap with an in-depth case study of a platform that successfully fostered an ecosystem of internal and external stakeholders – an achievement often described in the literature as challenging. The study identifies three organizational capabilities the public sector organization used for building a digital platform that engages with the surrounding ecosystem – technological asset management, platform architecture, and ecosystem orchestration – and shows how they are interlinked and mutually reinforce one another. The findings further advance the Government as a Platform literature by uncovering an unconventional platform development trajectory and highlighting the importance of user-centric and agile approaches towards platform development.